224 the northeast
This is the distribution by 20-year periods of the 47 recorded Shih-wei
missions to the Sui and T’ang:
587-606: 1
607-626: 2
627-646: 6
647-666: 0
667-686: 0
687-706: 0
707-726: 5
727-746: 3
747-766: 5
767-786: 13
787-806: 2
807-826: 1
827-846: 8
847-866: 1
22 missions arrived before the rebellion of An Lu-shan in 755 and
25 thereafter. After a hiatus until 766, missions not only kept coming
but actually increased. The statistics are similar to those for the Hsi.
As in their case, the Chinese chronic need for horses may have kept
the Shih-wei envoys coming. No missions are recorded by date or
otherwise after 860. This must again have been due to unsettled
conditions and an impoverished T’ang court.
The goods brought by the envoys are rarely specified, leopard and
sable furs in 629, sable furs in 631, 60 horses in 747, gold, silver,
textiles, silken fabrics, cow bezoar, human hair, and ginseng together
with the Black River Mo-ho in 748, and 50 horses in 836.
The Wu-lo-hun
This tribe was in Northern Wei times known as the Wu-lo-hou.
During T’ang times, they were at times called the Wu-lo-hun. Their
territory bordered in the east on the Mo-ho (Po-hai), in the west on
the Turks, and in the south on the Khitan (Chiu T’ang shu 199B:13b).
That would place them in central Manchuria. They were probably
linguistically related to the Khitan.
In 632, envoys from a Wu-lo-hun chief to the T’ang court presented
sable furs (Chiu T’ang shu 199B:13b; T’ung-tien 200:49a; Wen-hsien t’ung-
k’ao 347:27a).